Heretofore, milo starch has been produced by methods similar to those for producing corn starch.
Corn starch is produced by immersing the whole raw material to allow it to swell, grinding, separating the ground material into a starch slurry and dregs, and drying the starch slurry. Further, the dregs are dried and used as a feedstuff. In this process, it is necessary to subject the whole raw material, including the dregs, to treatments, such as drying, thus requiring large equipment for production. Further, a large amount of fuel is consumed for drying, requiring high fuel costs. Additionally, the method described above uses sulfurous acid for the purpose of sterilization, which acid is a major cause of odor pollution. Moreover, before the waste water from the process can be discharged into rivers or the like, the sulfurous acid must be removed from the waste water, involving an additional cost of waste water treatement.
As described above, the conventional method requires large production equipment, high fuel cost, and the additional cost of waste water treatment, all adding to a high production cost.